222 E. A. ANDREWS 



That most enthusiastic observer of termites, Beaumont, 

 carried on experiments in Panama that led him to state that 

 the termites he studied had a special odor for each nest and 

 that even a piece of nest material from an alien community 

 was responded to differently from a piece of the own nest. Later 

 the interpretations of Bethe and others have strongly upheld 

 the view that the ants respond to aliens through reaction to 

 some nest stuff or aura peculiar to each community. All the 

 foregoing observations, many of which but confirm the obser- 

 vations of Beaumont and upon the same or similar species, may 

 readily be taken to support this view as applied to termites. 

 At the same time it seems rash to affirm that there are not other 

 factors than chemical substances affecting the termites to lead 

 them to reply to aliens as they ordinarily do. Vibrations of 

 various kinds and movements of air may also be potent. Future 

 discoveries as to sounds produced might lead one to assume a 

 special shibboleth for each community. 



One of the most remarkable discoveries of Beaumont was 

 that a termite washed a few minutes in water and returned, 

 after drying, to its fellows was attacked and injured by a fellow 

 termite ; then a second worker cut off its head and turning about 

 deposited anal material upon it ; but he says there was no such 

 general disturbance as there was when aliens were put on a nest. 



Such results were many times obtained with the Jamaica 

 termites and there is no doubt that water may greatly modify 

 the responses of termites to one another, but the phenomena 

 are complex and by no means readily analyzed without much 

 more carefully guarded experiments with measured elements. 



Considering the dift'erences in amount of the response of 

 various communities and the differences between its expression 

 in various individuals it is not to be expected that the same 

 results will always follow the same treatment of all termites. 

 There were many failures to obtain any result by washing the 

 termites, but in general thorough washing had the result to 

 change the behavior of the washed termite as well as to change 

 the responses it evoked both from its fellows and from aliens. 



The well-washed termite is markedly below normal; it walks 

 less actively and is not aggressive. The responses it calls out 

 from its fellows are: unusual notice, examination, and even 

 more or less attack which may end in severe injury and some- 



